Vegans!!

[littlemissgrumpi]

I have a friend I've known for years and years. She's great, but the following is recently seriously getting on my nerves:

Myself and DH are regular half marathoners / love exercise / athletic builds / no health conditions / omnivores. We eat lots of veg, chicken and fish about twice a week, red meat about once a fortnight. Cow's milk in coffee and tea everyday. Pretty average. Said friend has always struggled with being overweight, not helped by the birth of her DD2 and is currently quite overweight and doesn't like to exercise. No judgement, each to their own. She's recently become vegan and is obsessed with telling me how worried she is for my health because I drink milk and eat red meat. It's almost laughable because I'm the fittest I've ever been & felt! I don't comment on her choice of vegan cakes etc so I really feel this is unreasonable.

The other day on a walk, she was huffing and puffing walking up the hill whilst telling me how unhealthy it is to be drinking cows milk and I really shouldn't have the beef burger for lunch. AIBU to think it's ridiculous??

@TheGratefulBread

I eat meat but I find the MN anti-vegan thing really boring.

It's an OCD thing... new religion, new food, new sobriety, new to fitness, whatever. New converts evangelise. I have lots of family experience (and some mega family rows).

It’s amazing how many vegans basically live on convenience food and wash it down with a handful of vitamins ( that they aren’t getting from food) It’s a difficult lifestyle and one you have to really educate yourself on. I know a vegan who was losing handfuls of hair and her teeth went loose. We all knew it was her diet but she was convinced she had some kind of auto immune disease because she took vitamins and ‘vegan is healthy’ . It was only when she had vitamin-injections and iron transfusions everything got better that started denying the truth to herself.

My brother and wife are vegans and have enforced it on my niece and nephews. My brother annoys me because he’s so virtuous with it 😤 Plus the kids are stick thin. One of them told me he really wanted to try the pepperoni pizza at school but when I told my brother what my nephew had said he nearly bit my head off. When I see other kids the same age as my niece/nephews, they look so much more robust. Those three get cold broccoli for a snack FFS. Makes me so angry.

@toomanydogsandcats

I think I am the best type of vegan. Although Puritans would say I am not a vegan. Left to choice I don't eat animal products and don't eat meat. If invited out I eat what I am given if its meat stock, dairy in the food and when I am ill I have to have bovril and bone broth. I don't want to support the meat industry but know I won't change the world alone, I have shares in beyond meat and support plant based start ups. But life is too short to let it take over your life and even though the industy repulses me, there's no doubt that the odd bovril, oxo, butter and cream (not together) just makes food taste nicer.

This is the funniest thing I have read 😂 your not vegan then are you. It’s not a part time commitment

@toomanydogsandcats

I think I am the best type of vegan. Although Puritans would say I am not a vegan. Left to choice I don't eat animal products and don't eat meat. If invited out I eat what I am given if its meat stock, dairy in the food and when I am ill I have to have bovril and bone broth. I don't want to support the meat industry but know I won't change the world alone, I have shares in beyond meat and support plant based start ups. But life is too short to let it take over your life and even though the industy repulses me, there's no doubt that the odd bovril, oxo, butter and cream (not together) just makes food taste nicer.

I am sort of the same as you. You’ll get berated whatever you call it. If I’m home and can control what I’m eating, but if I’m out and someone offers me tea / coffee I’m not going to insist it’s oat milk. If it’s cows milk it’s ok. In a restaurant of the gravy is not veggie, it’s annoying but ok.

I never eat meat. But if it’s a meat product snuck in, it’s not ideal. But ok.

The new OXO meatless is quite a good alternative for a “beefy” flavour.

She is very ignorant & will end up very ill if not careful. Generally a vegan diet needs supplements to replace what you miss from meat.

We are biologically omnivores, we need meat & veg to be healthy, or supplements to replace B12 etc. Even the vegan society advocates supplements

I’m a very fat vegan ..no advert for being healthy through a vegan diet from me .
But I went vegan to not consume animals or animal products ,never once thought going vegan would mean healthy,the amount of vegan junk food ,vegan burgers ,vegan everything is astounding.
A vegan in the 1940s would of been healthy
But today being vegan definitely does not equal being vegan

Being healthy

@toomanydogsandcats my DM is like this too. Very sensible. It’s not a competition.
If she accidentally eats a bit of meat she goes “oops” and carries on with her life

YANBU and if I were you I would definitely make a comment about her health. Even an 'my husband and I aren't the ones struggling with our weight'.

I could not let her obliviousness and rudeness pass.

I'm a very long term vegetarian and was vegan for 6 months. I did a lot of research into it before hand and was utterly appalled by industrial meat farming and the realities of the dairy trade. It's incredibly saddening to see the suffering animals go through for our food preferences.

Also a well balanced vegan diet is definitely the healthiest diet you can have (I say well balanced and not just mass produced convenience food and processed soya sausages and burgers etc).

During my vegan phase I would regularly discuss the atrocities of how our food is produced and the awful welfare standards. Being vegan is really hard and takes a lot of time and commitment. Something I'm ashamed to say I couldn't follow through with. However, I found that discussing it helped me to validate my choices and reinforce my willpower.

Perhaps your friend is also struggling with the realities of a vegan lifestyle and is trying to remind herself why she has chosen it. Annoying for you (and everyone else she is undoubtably talking too) but perhaps you could use it to open up a conversation to see how she is really feeling. Plus it's not a bad thing to be educated in the realities of food production.

I mean, you say no judgement while filling your OP with details on how fat and unfit your friend is compared to you, that sounds fairly judgy to me.

This isn't a vegan thing.

Also a well balanced vegan diet is definitely the healthiest diet you can have (I say well balanced and not just mass produced convenience food and processed soya sausages and burgers etc).

Not according to the vegan society it isn't...

www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/nutrients/vitamin-b12/what-every-vegan-should-know-about-vitamin-b12

When I see other kids the same age as my niece/nephews, they look so much more robust. Those three get cold broccoli for a snack FFS. Makes me so angry.

Heaven forfend! Children getting broccoli as a snack?! Will nobody think of the children?! 😱

I love how raising vegan children is considered to be some kind of torture, as if feeding them fruit, vegetables, pulses and non-meat protein is some kind of awful health risk. What a load of bollocks.

I also love how everyone suddenly gains a real interest in whether these kids can possibly be healthy, when the general population are feeding their kids plenty of processed crap.

I’d hazard that vegan parents (puritan or not) are far more knowledgeable about their children's diets and making sure they have a variety of vitamins and minerals.

So one of them wants to eat a pepperoni pizza, big deal! It’s nothing to do with you whether their parents allow it or not, it’s not a tragedy that he can’t.

Comes down to the old say.... How do you know someone is vegan? They'll tell you!

She obviously doesn't really understand about health and fitness so personally I would dismiss her advice and ask her kindly to keep it to herself.

[quote RockinHorseShit]Also a well balanced vegan diet is definitely the healthiest diet you can have (I say well balanced and not just mass produced convenience food and processed soya sausages and burgers etc).

Not according to the vegan society it isn't...

www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/nutrients/vitamin-b12/what-every-vegan-should-know-about-vitamin-b12[/quote]
To be fair that article actually validates my point that you need a well balanced vegan diet!

You should be nicer, big leaps during mental gymnastics is the only exercise some people get!

I eat meat but I find the MN anti-vegan thing really boring.

It can be boring. But it’s also very funny at times when posters claim they know vegans that eat meat at every chance they get. A while ago there was a thread with people were saying their vegan friends were snaffling bacon sandwiches, one apparently had a vegan friend that came round their house and ate 2 roast chicken. 😂 2! As if that happened. 😂 The desperation of some people to prove vegans are desperate to eat meat is amusing. All the vegans I know are repulsed by meat, dairy and eggs.

The same with saying vegans look 20 years older, their hairs falling out etc. I’ve been vegan for more years than I can remember and I’m very healthy. I run most days, do weights, do gym classes, swim and play a team sport. I know lots of vegans and I’ve never known any to be ill due to their diet. Any diet can be unhealthy though.

I don’t know why people have issues with vegans. My partner eats some meat but no dairy or eggs, my son eats meat and eggs, no dairy, my daughter is vegetarian and I’m vegan. No issues, no arguments.

Yep I realise that all vegans aren't like this - rushed typing of a post and I don't mean to stir up hatred for vegans!

Yeah, I’m not believing this at all. You were so rushed that you had chance to name change or create an account?

I think you knew exactly what you were doing. 🙄

As a vegan, it's a shock learning about the meat and dairy industry and I imagine she's excited to share her new found knowledge with you as you are her health-orientated friend! I would genuinely have a look at some of the health issues surrounding meat and dairy yourself as like any food source it's not perfect and you might want to reduce your consumption. (Or not!) If it bothers you just gently remind her that it's your choice what you eat and you'd prefer not to have the same conversation as your not looking to change your diet but you're excited for her to be thinking more about what she eats (though you're right vegan does not = healthy!) and feel free to offer your own nutritional advice without mentioning the vegan issue at all, e.g. cake is rarely 'healthy'- vegan or not!!

YABU.

"Myself and DH are ..." should be "DH and I..."

@blinkingheckthisishard

There are no natural vegan food that contain the correct form of B12 that us humans need to stay healthy, so a vegan diet ideally needs to be supplemented with B12, D calcium.

I'm talking from experience as a practically life long vegetarian, not dissing vegans, we just know how serious deficiencies can be.